Mila Kunis plays innocent witch Theodora in “Oz the Great and Powerful”

Fresh from her acclaimed turn in “Black Swan,” Mila Kunis now plays the beautiful, innocent witch Theodora, who is easily manipulated by both her powerful sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and the ever-so-charming Oscar (James Franco) in Walt Disney Pictures’ 3D fantasy adventure “Oz the Great and Powerful.”

“Theodora is a good witch when we first meet her,” notes director Sam Raimi about the character. “When Oscar first gets to the Land of Oz, he meets her and is smitten by her beauty. She is innocent and has the good will of the people at heart, then is easily manipulated by James’ character. At this point, Oscar is a great manipulator and a selfish flirt. He woos and romances her, then leaves her be and breaks her heart.”

“Theodora is a really nice, sweet, naive witch who truly wants to bring peace to the land,” Kunis elaborates. “She is a girl who desperately wants to believe in good and believe in the betterment of society, the betterment of the people and betterment of the world. She is also in so much denial of the bad that she doesn’t even think it exists.

“There’s a prophecy that the previous king predicted on his deathbed saying that this man would come and save the Land of Oz,” the actress details further about her character. “She sees this balloon drop from the sky and on the balloon it says ‘The Great and Powerful Oz’. Without a doubt in her mind, she believes that this is the great and powerful wizard that is coming to save the Land of Oz from the Wicked Witch.”

“When first writing the character of Theodora, I wanted her to be between Glinda and Evanora while being pulled by both sides,” screenwriter Mitchell Kapner relates. “When we first meet her, she loves her older sister, but she is also fond of goodness, which Glinda represents.

“Theodora is someone who’s innocent in a way,” Kapner continues in describing the character and how he developed her backstory that is not in the Baum books. “There is a line where she says ‘no one’s ever asked me to dance before.’ She is very innocent and protected in a lot of ways.”

“Theodora’s my younger sister who’s good, but also has a streak of wickedness in her because she’s my sister,” Weisz chimes in about the dynamic of the character. “I try to seduce her over to the dark side through different events, which I manipulate because I need her on my side. If I can get Theodora on my side, it would be two against one and I could then beat Glinda, the Good Witch.”

In choosing Kunis for the signature role, Raimi explains that he saw her in two very different films that cemented his decision to cast her in the role of Theodora. “I saw Mila Kunis in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and she was very sweet. She’s adorable and really funny with a great sense of humor. I knew when I saw that picture that she was a great actress who could play the innocent side of Theodora. When I saw the brilliant movie ‘Black Swan,’ I also saw the darker side of her, a streak of ‘witchiness’ that represented the other side of what I needed for the portrayal of Theodora. So, between those two performances, she showed me that she had everything that she needed for this part.”

Kunis admits that she had some trepidation when she was approached about the role. “I mean it was Sam Raimi first and ‘Oz The Great and Powerful’ in the same sentence. It wasn’t so much intriguing as it was frightening to me, and that’s the truth.”

Despite her reservations, Kunis decided to take a meeting with director Sam Raimi. “I went to meet Sam and what was supposed to be a thirty-minute meet ended up being like four hours long. We broke down the character and the script and grounded everything in reality, which was incredibly comforting to me.”

Kunis adds, “What I think intrigued me about it was the unknown. I’ve never done anything remotely close to this. In saying that, you have to challenge yourself, and I felt safe in the challenge because I was surrounded by people whom I respected so much—Sam first and foremost.”

Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, March 7 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular theaters, “Oz The Great and Powerful” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.

Complete stories on our
Digital Edition newsstand for tablets,
netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial.
About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart
and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of INQUIRER.net. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.

Hi there, I discovered your blog by the use of Google
whilst looking for a related subject, your website got here up, it seems great.
I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.[X-N-E-W-L-I-N-S-P-I-N-X]Hi there,
just became alert to your weblog via Google, and located that
it is really informative. I’m going to watch out for brussels.
I’ll be grateful for those who continue this in future. Lots of
other folks will likely be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!

Hi, I do believe this is a great web site.
I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to return once again since i have
book-marked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people.

I enjoy you because of all your work on this web page. My daughter really
loves going through investigation and it is obvious why.

Almost all know all of the powerful means you create very helpful ideas through the website and boost participation from other individuals on this area plus
our own princess is studying a lot of things. Take pleasure in the remaining portion of the new year.
You’re the one doing a first class job.[X-N-E-W-L-I-N-S-P-I-N-X]I’m
really impressed along with your writing skills and also with the layout in your blog.
Is this a paid topic or did you customize it your self?
Anyway stay up the excellent quality writing, it is uncommon to look a great blog like this one nowadays.

I have been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles or weblog posts on this sort of
area . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this web site.
Studying this information So i’m happy to convey that I’ve an incredibly
just right uncanny feeling I discovered just what I needed.
I most for sure will make sure to don?t overlook this
web site and provides it a look on a continuing basis.

Fantastic goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just
extremely great. I really like what you’ve got right here, certainly like what you’re stating and the best way in which you assert it.

You’re making it enjoyable and you still take care of
to stay it sensible. I can’t wait to learn far more from
you. This is really a wonderful site.

I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right
here. The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish.

nonetheless, you command get bought an edginess over that you
wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come further formerly again as exactly the same
nearly very often inside case you shield this increase.

Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and
sources back to your blog? My website is in the very same niche as yours and my users would really benefit from some of the information you present here.

I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here.
The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish.

nonetheless, you command get got an impatience
over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again since exactly the same nearly very often inside case you shield this hike.

First off I would like to say fantastic blog! I had a quick question that I’d like to ask if you don’t mind.
I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing.

I’ve had a difficult time clearing my thoughts in getting
my thoughts out. I truly do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15
minutes are generally lost just trying to figure out how
to begin. Any recommendations or hints? Appreciate it!

When I originally commented I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments
are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is added I
receive four emails with the exact same comment.
Perhaps there is a way you are able to remove me from that service?
Kudos!

Great items from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you are just too
wonderful. I really like what you’ve obtained right
here, really like what you are stating and the
way wherein you are saying it. You’re making it enjoyable and you still
care for to stay it sensible. I cant wait to read far more from you.
That is really a tremendous site.

Hey! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers?
My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several weeks of hard work
due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to
protect against hackers?

Having read this I thought it was rather enlightening.
I appreciate you spending some time and effort to put this short
article together. I once again find myself personally spending way too much time
both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!

You’re so cool! I do not believe I’ve read something like this before.
So nice to discover another person with a few unique thoughts
on this topic. Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up.
This site is something that is required on the web, someone
with a little originality!

Hey there, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog in Opera, it looks fine but
when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up!
Other then that, great blog!

There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content.
Please let me know. Cheers

Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
To subscribe to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper in the Philippines, call +63 2 896-6000 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request here.